Scavenger Hunt
by Meg Rider
Summary: After a fight breaks out in class, the teacher's punishment is for everyone to come to school on Saturday night for a mandatory assignment: each student is paired up with the one person in class they can't stand to be around right now and forced to go around town to complete a scavenger hunt. Limits will be tested and fights will happen; but will they make it through the night?
1. Chapter 1

Mrs. Radcliffe's last period class filed in moments before the bell rang and took their seats. She waited for them to quiet down before addressing them.

"Good afternoon, class. I know it's Friday and you're eager for the weekend, but try to focus for the next forty-five minutes," Mrs. Radcliffe said. "Now, all of you should have finished reading _The Iliad_ for homework last night, so today we're going to begin the movie, _Troy_. But, this is not a free period. I want you to take notes on all the differences between the book and the movie."

This solicited a few groans from the students. Mrs. Radcliffe ignored them. She put the DVD into the player, then turned on the TV and shut off the lights. All of the students got out their notebooks, but Mrs. Radcliffe already knew which students would do the assignment and which wouldn't.

"I have to make a run down to the office. I won't be long," Mrs. Radcliffe told them before walking out of the classroom.

The students remained quiet for a couple minutes to make sure she was really gone, then some of them began talking amongst themselves.

Rapunzel paid close attention to the movie, jotting down the differences as they came up.

"Psst!" Jack Frost, who sat behind her, whispered. She ignored him. "Blondie!" He poked her in the back of the head with his pen.

Rapunzel spun around. "Leave me alone!" she hissed. "We're supposed to be taking notes."

Jack leaned back in his seat, propping his feet up on his desk. "Do you always do what you're told, blondie?"

"Yes. It's how I stay out of trouble. And my name is Rapunzel."

"You're such a goodie two-shoes."

Elsa, who sits next to Jack, leaned over. "It's better to be a goodie two-shoes than a delinquent who's gonna have to repeat senior year- like _you_, Frost." She shoved his feet off his desk.

Jack sat up. "I'm not gonna have to repeat senior year."

"You will if you don't pass your classes because you're too busy screwin' around," Elsa retorted. "Now, leave Rapunzel alone and stop trying to suck her into your black hole."

"Lighten up, babe," Pitch Black said from the desk behind Elsa.

Elsa rolled her eyes and looked at him. He didn't even bother to take out a notebook to pretend he was working. Pitch was definitely the rebel of the senior class. He was smart, though, and despite rarely doing his assignments, he still managed to ace all of the tests and keep his grade at a passing grade. Barely passing, but still passing.

"I can't afford to lighten up, Pitch," Elsa hissed. "Unlike you and Frost, I actually have standards for myself and I'm not okay with just barely graduating; resulting in a low chance in getting accepted into college and then ending up in a mediocre job."

"God, Elsa; you're acting like more of a bitch than usual," Esmeralda muttered. She was seated on the other side of Elsa. She had her notebook out, but the page was blank. Instead she was running a file over her perfectly manicured nails.

Rapunzel lowered her head and tried to focus on the assignment. She felt bad that Elsa was just standing up for her but now had everyone ganging up on her.

"Can you guys please stop talking?" Jane Porter asked from the front of Esmeralda's row. "I can't hear the movie over you."

Esmeralda rolled her eyes. "You're _such _a buzz-kill, Jane. Just mind your own business."

Jane blushed and turned back to face the TV.

Belle reached over and put her hand on Jane's arm. "Don't worry about Esmeralda," she whispered. "Mrs. Radcliffe will be back soon and she'll get in trouble for not doing the assignment."

Jane started to say something in reply, but stopped short when she saw the bruises on Belle's arm. "Belle!" she gasped. "What happened?"

Belle quickly retracted her arm and pulled her sleeve down. "It's nothing."

Belle's best friend, Aladdin, leaned forward over his desk and grabbed Belle's arm. He examined the bruises and frowned. "Those are not nothing, Belle. Did Adam do this?"

Belle pulled her arm out of his grasp and turned around in her seat to look at her best friend. "It's nothing, Aladdin. Just let it be."

Aladdin glared at her. "No. You can try to hide it all you want, but I know he's hitting you."

"It's none of your business."

"You're my best friend; of course it's my business."

"Keep your drama to a minimum, please," Meg mumbled from the desk next to Aladdin. She was bent over her desk, using her notebook as a pillow. "I'm trying to sleep."

Gaston turned around in his desk to face Meg. "Oh, good; you're awake."

Meg groaned internally. _Great_…

"Today's your lucky day," Gaston continued.

Meg rolled her eyes. "Every day that I have to see you is not a lucky day."

Gaston ignored her. "I'm going to Naveen's party tomorrow night and you get to be my date."

Meg sat up and looked at him. "I _get _to go out with you?" she asked in a mock excited voice. "However did I get so lucky?"

Gaston frowned. "Don't mock me."

"Don't set yourself up to be mocked."

"E-excuse me, everyone?"

Everyone looked up to see teacher's pet, Milo Thatch, standing in front of the classroom.

Milo cleared his throat. "Um… Mrs. Radcliffe will be back any minute, so we should probably quiet down and get back to our- our assignments."

Gaston laughed out loud. "I'm already done with my assignment. Take a look." He ripped out some pages from his notebook, wadded them up in a ball and threw the paper ball at Milo. It hit Milo in the face, knocking his glasses askew.

"Knock it off, man," Adam said from the back of the room. "Leave the guy alone."

Aladdin spun around in his seat and glared at Adam. "Suddenly you're against violence?"

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Adam demanded.

"You know exactly what it means."

Adam stood up. "If you've got something to say to me, say it."

Aladdin got to his feet and marched over to Adam. "I know you hit Belle."

"Aladdin, stop it," Belle hissed. "Just sit down."

Aladdin shook his head. "I don't think so. Let's see how tough Adam is against someone his own size."

"Listen to Belle, Aladdin," Adam warned. "What happens between me and Belle is none of your business."

Aladdin narrowed his eyes at him and before he could think things through, he punched Adam in the face.

"Aladdin!" Belle cried in horror and anger, jumping to her feet.

Adam recomposed himself and punched Aladdin in the mouth. Helga Sinclair, who was standing next to Esmeralda's desk, hurried over to Aladdin.

"Aladdin! Are you all right?" Helga asked. She took his face in her hands and examined his bloody lip. "Baby, you're bleeding."

Jasmine, who was sitting in the back of the classroom, behind Jack, listening to her iPod, got to her feet and jumped over desks to get to Aladdin and Helga. She grabbed Helga by her blonde braid and pulled her away from Aladdin.

"Back off, bitch!" Jasmine said. "Aladdin's _my _boyfriend. You broke up with him, remember?" Jasmine looked at Aladdin's face. The cut on his lip was deep, but it wouldn't need stitches or anything. "And don't baby him. He can take a punch."

Aladdin smiled at his girlfriend and kissed her. She could taste a little bit of his blood, but she didn't mind.

Suddenly the lights came back on and everyone jumped, startled to see Mrs. Radcliffe in the doorway. All of the students quickly made their way back to their seats. Mrs. Radcliffe paused the movie and stared down at her class.

"What happened in here?" the English teacher demanded.

No one said anything.

Mrs. Radcliffe fixed her eyes on Milo. "Mr. Thatch? Please explain."

Milo gulped and looked around at the students before rehashing everything that happened. Mrs. Radcliffe nodded slowly as she listened, but her expression was blank. When Milo finished, Mrs. Radcliffe didn't say anything for a long time. She folded her arms over her chest and leaned against her desk.

Finally she said, "I'm not going to tell Principal Tremaine about this. Instead, _I'm_ going to handle your punishment. Tomorrow night you will all report to this classroom at seven o'clock for a mandatory assignment."

"You can't do that!" Esmeralda exclaimed. "You can't make us come to school on a Saturday night."

Mrs. Radcliffe arched an eyebrow. "Yes, I can. This assignment will be worth half of your final exam's grade. If you don't complete it, you will fail the assignment, as well as your final. If you don't show up, you will fail your final _and_ I will report you to the principal where I'm sure you will get detention."

There was loud chatter among the students, but Mrs. Radcliffe quieted them down. "That's enough! This is not optional. Every one of you _will _report back here tomorrow night at seven o'clock."


	2. Chapter 2

The students of Mrs. Radcliffe's last period English class sat anxiously at their desks Saturday night. Mrs. Radcliffe stood in front of the class, holding a clipboard and a small stack of papers.

She cleared her throat and looked up at her students. "As a reminder: completion of this assignment is worth half of your final exam grade. Fail the assignment and you fail the exam. It's that simple. You have until ten o'clock."

Milo raised his hand. "What is the assignment, Mrs. Radcliffe?"

"A scavenger hunt. I will break you up into teams of two. You must collect all of the items on the list as well as the books they represent." Mrs. Radcliffe turned her attention back to her clipboard. "I will read off the teams. Once you are all with your partners, I will hand out the list. Team one: Jim and Go Go. Team two: Wasabi and Tiana. Team three: Jack and Rapunzel. Team four: Flynn and Phoebus. Team five: Pitch and Elsa. Team six: Gaston and Meg. Team seven: Aladdin and Belle. Team eight: Hercules and Aurora. Team nine: Jasmine and Helga. Team ten: Jane and Esmeralda. Team eleven: Milo and Adam. Team twelve: John and Eric. And team thirteen: Ariel and Tadashi."

The assigned teams elicited several groans throughout the classroom. None louder than Jasmine's; partly because she was wearing her headphones and listening to music and partly because she was stuck working with Aladdin's ex-girlfriend and her sworn enemy.

"Settle down, everyone!" Mrs. Radcliffe called out.

Once everyone had begrudgingly got with their partners, she walked around to each group and handed out the list:

-Red A  
-Daisy  
-Conch Shell  
-Pack of Wrigley's Double Mint Gum  
-Red Hunting Hat  
-Photo of Mississippi River (actual photo, not computer printout)  
-Wooden Horse  
-White Hospital Bandages  
-Knitting Needle  
-Lit Fire  
-Tear Away Calendar Date of the Ides of March  
-_Maniacs in the Fourth Dimension, The Gospel of Outer Space, The Money Tree, The Gutless Wonder, The Mysterious Zoo Novel, The Mysterious Jesus Time-Traveling Novel, The Big Board_

Flynn's hand shot up. "Um, Mrs. Radcliffe, I have a question about the last item."

"I will answer no questions. Collect everything on the list and the books they represent." Mrs. Radcliffe set her clipboard on her desk. "You can collect these items from anywhere in town except the school and library."

"You mean we don't have to stay here?" Esmeralda asked.

"No you don't. But, you must have the scavenger hunt completed and return here by ten o'clock or you fail. Any other questions about the rules?" The English teacher looked around the room, but no one had any questions. "All right then, you're dismissed."

**X.X.X**

"This is going to be a piece of cake," Jane told Esmeralda.

"Sure." Esmeralda didn't look up from her phone as they made their way out of the school. She had text from Naveen about a party at Fred's house tonight. "Easy for you maybe, Jane. You're, like, ridiculously smart."

Jane blushed and shook her head. "No, I'm not. I just like to read. Besides, some of these are easy. Like the red A is clearly from _The Scarlet Letter_. And the daisy is obviously _The Great Gatsby_."

Esmeralda arched an eyebrow. "Obviously? How is that obvious?"

Jane furrowed her brow. This was going to be more challenging than she thought. "One of characters from _The Great Gatsby_ is Daisy Buchanan. It's obvious if you've read the book. Or, at the very least, seen the movie."

"Oh right! The one with Leo. He was smokin' hot in that movie."

Jane pinched the bridge of her nose with her finger and thumb and took a deep breath. "Right. _Anyway_. The red A should be easy enough."

"I got that one covered." Esmeralda rifled through her purse and pulled out a tube of red lipstick. She uncapped it, then drew the letter A on the list sheet with the lipstick. "Done."

"I'm not sure if simply writing the letter A in red counts."

"She never said it didn't," Esmeralda pointed out.

"True. But, to be safe, we should still look for an object that-"

"Why do you have to make everything so complicated?"

"I'm not. I just want to make sure we complete this properly so we don't fail."

"And I just want to get this done as quickly as possible so I can make it to Fredzilla's party."

Jane rolled her eyes. "That's absurd. You can't just half-ass the assignment so you can go to a party. This is worth half of our final exam grade and something tells me if you fail this you're going to summer school."

Esmeralda glared at her. "You don't know anything about me! So just save your judgment, bitch."

Jane exhaled in frustration. "This is getting us nowhere. We're never gonna get this done if we're fighting the whole time." Esmeralda gave her a doubtful look. "We don't have to be friends or anything. Let's just try to be civil with each other until we're done and then we can go our separate ways."

"Fine." Esmeralda brushed her hair off her shoulder. "What's the next item on the list?"

"Well, we need to get all the books that are represented. I'm pretty sure I have all of them at my house."

"Good. I'll drive." Esmeralda pulled her keys out of her purse and led Jane to a dark purple convertible.

Aurora's BMW was parked next to Esmeralda. She and Hercules were just getting to the car as well.

"You going to the party, Esme?" Hercules asked.

Esmeralda nodded. "As soon as we're done, I'm there."

Aurora and Hercules exchanged a look. "Well, we're heading there now," Aurora said. "We have three hours to get this done; we can stop at the party for a little bit before getting started."

Esmeralda looked over at Jane. Jane scowled and shook her head. Esmeralda sighed. "I'll be there later."

Aurora shrugged. "Suit yourself. Have fun hanging out with the nerd."

Jane blushed and lowered her head as she got in the car.

Esmeralda felt a little sorry for Jane. She fixed her turquoise eyes on Aurora. "Have fun in summer school."


End file.
